The Brain That Changes Itself

The Brain That Changes Itself PDF Author: Norman Doidge, M.D.
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101147113
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 447

Get Book Here

Book Description
“Fascinating. Doidge’s book is a remarkable and hopeful portrait of the endless adaptability of the human brain.”—Oliver Sacks, MD, author of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat What is neuroplasticity? Is it possible to change your brain? Norman Doidge’s inspiring guide to the new brain science explains all of this and more An astonishing new science called neuroplasticity is overthrowing the centuries-old notion that the human brain is immutable, and proving that it is, in fact, possible to change your brain. Psychoanalyst, Norman Doidge, M.D., traveled the country to meet both the brilliant scientists championing neuroplasticity, its healing powers, and the people whose lives they’ve transformed—people whose mental limitations, brain damage or brain trauma were seen as unalterable. We see a woman born with half a brain that rewired itself to work as a whole, blind people who learn to see, learning disorders cured, IQs raised, aging brains rejuvenated, stroke patients learning to speak, children with cerebral palsy learning to move with more grace, depression and anxiety disorders successfully treated, and lifelong character traits changed. Using these marvelous stories to probe mysteries of the body, emotion, love, sex, culture, and education, Dr. Doidge has written an immensely moving, inspiring book that will permanently alter the way we look at our brains, human nature, and human potential.

The Brain That Changes Itself

The Brain That Changes Itself PDF Author: Norman Doidge, M.D.
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101147113
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 447

Get Book Here

Book Description
“Fascinating. Doidge’s book is a remarkable and hopeful portrait of the endless adaptability of the human brain.”—Oliver Sacks, MD, author of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat What is neuroplasticity? Is it possible to change your brain? Norman Doidge’s inspiring guide to the new brain science explains all of this and more An astonishing new science called neuroplasticity is overthrowing the centuries-old notion that the human brain is immutable, and proving that it is, in fact, possible to change your brain. Psychoanalyst, Norman Doidge, M.D., traveled the country to meet both the brilliant scientists championing neuroplasticity, its healing powers, and the people whose lives they’ve transformed—people whose mental limitations, brain damage or brain trauma were seen as unalterable. We see a woman born with half a brain that rewired itself to work as a whole, blind people who learn to see, learning disorders cured, IQs raised, aging brains rejuvenated, stroke patients learning to speak, children with cerebral palsy learning to move with more grace, depression and anxiety disorders successfully treated, and lifelong character traits changed. Using these marvelous stories to probe mysteries of the body, emotion, love, sex, culture, and education, Dr. Doidge has written an immensely moving, inspiring book that will permanently alter the way we look at our brains, human nature, and human potential.

The Ghost in My Brain

The Ghost in My Brain PDF Author: Clark Elliott
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0698150147
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 338

Get Book Here

Book Description
The dramatic story of one man’s recovery offers new hope to those suffering from concussions and other brain traumas In 1999, Clark Elliott suffered a concussion when his car was rear-ended. Overnight his life changed from that of a rising professor with a research career in artificial intelligence to a humbled man struggling to get through a single day. At times he couldn’t walk across a room, or even name his five children. Doctors told him he would never fully recover. After eight years, the cognitive demands of his job, and of being a single parent, finally became more than he could manage. As a result of one final effort to recover, he crossed paths with two brilliant Chicago-area research-clinicians—one an optometrist emphasizing neurodevelopmental techniques, the other a cognitive psychologist—working on the leading edge of brain plasticity. Within weeks the ghost of who he had been started to re-emerge. Remarkably, Elliott kept detailed notes throughout his experience, from the moment of impact to the final stages of his recovery, astounding documentation that is the basis of this fascinating book. The Ghost in My Brain gives hope to the millions who suffer from head injuries each year, and provides a unique and informative window into the world’s most complex computational device: the human brain.

The Women's Brain Book

The Women's Brain Book PDF Author: Dr Sarah McKay
Publisher: Hachette Australia
ISBN: 0733638538
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 220

Get Book Here

Book Description
For women, understanding how the brain works during the key stages of life - in utero, childhood, puberty and adolescence, pregnancy and motherhood, menopause and old age - is essential to their health. Dr Sarah McKay is a neuroscientist who knows everything worth knowing about women's brains, and shares it in this fascinating, essential book. This is not a book about the differences between male and female brains, nor a book using neuroscience to explain gender-specific behaviours, the 'battle of the sexes' or 'Mars-Venus' stereotypes. This is a book about what happens inside the brains and bodies of women as they move through the phases of life, and the unique - and often misunderstood - effects of female biology and hormones. Dr McKay give insights into brain development during infancy, childhood and the teenage years (including the onset of puberty) and also takes a look at mental health as well as the ageing brain. The book weaves together findings from the research lab, case studies and interviews with neuroscientists and other researchers working in the disciplines of neuroendocrinology, brain development, brain health and ageing. This comprehensive guide explores the brain during significant life stages, including: In utero Childhood Puberty The Menstrual Cycle The Teenage Brain Depression and Anxiety Pregnancy and Motherhood Menopause The Ageing Brain

Neuroplasticity: Your Brain's Superpower

Neuroplasticity: Your Brain's Superpower PDF Author: Philippe Douyon MD
Publisher: Izzard Ink
ISBN: 1642281018
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 83

Get Book Here

Book Description
We live in a time in which more than 100 million Americans suffer from a neurological illness. Not only is that number expected to rise and the annual cost to care for people with neurological disorders expected to surpass 1 trillion dollars, but the impact of these illnesses on our lives is unlike any other. Neurological disorders affect every fiber of our being. They cause physical, psychological, emotional, and cognitive impairments. They rob us of our lives and families in a way that diseases of other organs can’t. Oftentimes it seems that we are helpless to do anything about it. But, what if that wasn’t true? Neuroplasticity: Your Brain’s Superpower empowers us to have a different relationship with our brains. Instead of just succumbing to whatever potential dysfunction, degeneration, or disease that may impact our nervous system, in this book we explore the ways in which we can give our brains exactly what they need to adapt, heal, and thrive. Neuroplasticity: Your Brain’s Superpower takes us on a journey through things that influence the evolution of our brains, including various diseases. Not only do we learn about these illnesses, but also about the potential healing that can take place after the injury. This book expands the conversation about brain health so that we can include the principles of neuroplasticity to help us take control of our neurological destinies.

The Biological Mind

The Biological Mind PDF Author: Alan Jasanoff
Publisher: Basic Books
ISBN: 154164431X
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 342

Get Book Here

Book Description
A pioneering neuroscientist argues that we are more than our brains To many, the brain is the seat of personal identity and autonomy. But the way we talk about the brain is often rooted more in mystical conceptions of the soul than in scientific fact. This blinds us to the physical realities of mental function. We ignore bodily influences on our psychology, from chemicals in the blood to bacteria in the gut, and overlook the ways that the environment affects our behavior, via factors varying from subconscious sights and sounds to the weather. As a result, we alternately overestimate our capacity for free will or equate brains to inorganic machines like computers. But a brain is neither a soul nor an electrical network: it is a bodily organ, and it cannot be separated from its surroundings. Our selves aren't just inside our heads -- they're spread throughout our bodies and beyond. Only once we come to terms with this can we grasp the true nature of our humanity.

You Are Not Your Brain

You Are Not Your Brain PDF Author: Jeffrey Schwartz MD
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1583334831
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 385

Get Book Here

Book Description
Two neuroscience experts explain how their 4-Step Method can help identify negative thoughts and change bad habits for good. A leading neuroplasticity researcher and the coauthor of the groundbreaking books Brain Lock and The Mind and the Brain, Jeffrey M. Schwartz has spent his career studying the human brain. He pioneered the first mindfulness-based treatment program for people suffering from OCD, teaching patients how to achieve long-term relief from their compulsions. Schwartz works with psychiatrist Rebecca Gladding to refine a program that successfully explains how the brain works and why we often feel besieged by overactive brain circuits (i.e. bad habits, social anxieties, etc.) the key to making life changes that you want—to make your brain work for you—is to consciously choose to “starve” these circuits of focused attention, thereby decreasing their influence and strength. You Are Not Your Brain carefully outlines their program, showing readers how to identify negative impulses, channel them through the power of focused attention, and ultimately lead more fulfilling and empowered lives.

The Wandering Mind

The Wandering Mind PDF Author: Michael C. Corballis
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022623861X
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 184

Get Book Here

Book Description
Corballis argues that mind-wandering has many constructive and adaptive features. These range from mental time travel?the wandering back and forth through time, not only to plan our futures based on past experience, but also to generate a continuous sense of who we are--to the ability to inhabit the minds of others, increasing empathy and social understanding. Through mind-wandering, we invent, tell stories, and expand our mental horizons. Mind wandering , hardly the sign of a faulty network or aimless distraction, actually underwrites creativity, whether as a Wordsworth wandering lonely as a cloud, or an Einstein imagining himself travelling on a beam of light. Corballis takes readers on a mental journey in chapters that can be savored piecemeal, as the minds of readers wander in different ways, and sometimes have limited attentional capacity.

The Woman Who Changed Her Brain

The Woman Who Changed Her Brain PDF Author: Barbara Arrowsmith-Young
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1451607946
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 288

Get Book Here

Book Description
Previously published in hardcover: New York: Free Press, 2012.

The Twenty-four Hour Mind

The Twenty-four Hour Mind PDF Author: Rosalind D. Cartwright
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199896283
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 225

Get Book Here

Book Description
In The Twenty-four Hour Mind, sleep researcher Rosalind Cartwright brings together decades of research into the bizarre sleep disorders known as 'parasomnias' to propose a new theory of how the human brain works consistently throughout waking and sleeping hours, based upon research showing that one of the primary purposes of sleep is to aid in regulating emotions and processing experiences that occur during waking hours.

Neuroplasticity

Neuroplasticity PDF Author: Moheb Costandi
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262529335
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 193

Get Book Here

Book Description
The real story of how our brains and nervous systems change throughout our lifetimes—with or without “brain training.” Fifty years ago, neuroscientists thought that a mature brain was fixed like a fly in amber, unable to change. Today, we know that our brains and nervous systems change throughout our lifetimes. This concept of neuroplasticity has captured the imagination of a public eager for self-improvement—and has inspired countless Internet entrepreneurs who peddle dubious “brain training” games and apps. In this book, Moheb Costandi offers a concise and engaging overview of neuroplasticity for the general reader, describing how our brains change continuously in response to our actions and experiences. Costandi discusses key experimental findings, and describes how our thinking about the brain has evolved over time. He explains how the brain changes during development, and the “synaptic pruning” that takes place before brain maturity. He shows that adult brains can grow new cells (citing, among many other studies, research showing that sexually mature male canaries learn a new song every year). He describes the kind of brain training that can bring about improvement in brain function. It's not gadgets and games that promise to “rewire your brain” but such sustained cognitive tasks as learning a musical instrument or a new language. (Costandi also notes that London cabbies increase their gray matter after rigorous training in their city's complicated streets.) He tells how brains compensate after stroke or injury; describes addiction and pain as maladaptive forms of neuroplasticity; and considers brain changes that accompany childhood, adolescence, parenthood, and aging. Each of our brains is custom-built. Neuroplasticity is at the heart of what makes us human.